<p>That’s good news, Jym. I haven’t dared get on the scale. Between the holiday eating and the injury restricting my activity…I’m doomed.</p>
<p>Thanks, EPTR. Its been a challenge because of the dietary restrictions this week (Passover). Matzo is, IMO, like eating cardboard, and only good with butter and salt. Having to limit that, for sure. Many of the holiday recipes have a ton of oil and eggs too.</p>
<p>Hope your back is getting better. I’ve done no exercise other than walk, unless you call my falling down the stairs this morning exercise!! My knees are still misbehaving, though were better. Hope to get back into exercising when a bit more weight comes off.</p>
<p>I got over my 2 week stagnation! Officially have lost 10.5, with another 10.5 to go! Yay!!! </p>
<p>And I got us back on the first page–nobody had checked in since Thursday. You DID all survive Friday the 13th, right? Hello? Hellooooo??? ;)</p>
<p>Oh, I’m here but have done too much celebrating of the end of Passover to show my face. :o Pasta last night; pancakes this morning. On the other hand, I spent some time yesterday trying on old dresses and they either fit or almost fit (got on but tight in the waist), including the dress I wore to my brother’s rehearsal dinner in October 1989. There’s one old dress that I actually want to have taken in for my big trip to China next month (accompanying DH on a business trip, all expenses paid). The dress was made in China so I figure I should wear it in China. </p>
<p>I’ve come thatclose to 45 pounds, or my 9th 5 pounds, as they say on the other thread. So now I have a goal for my one year anniversary on this thread on Flag Day, or rather two goals: (1) to drop from Overweight to Normal on the Wii Fit and (2) to reach 50 pounds loss. I’ve lost some momentum so need to get back on track eating as I did in 2011.</p>
<p>I am still here! Busy few days for us. The most exciting news is that my eldest D became a US Citizen. We had a nice family dinner at Maggiano’s and then she headed back to college as soon as she could to celebrate with her college buddies.</p>
<p>At last, my H is on board with the dieting/ healthy eating. We all have to get there in our own time. He looked up the calorie content of his fav spag meatballs at Maggiano’s. I couldn’t believe it was a whooping 4400 calories. Glad I had chicken piccata with spinach.</p>
<p>Congrats SJTH on getting over the stagnation hump! Keep going Marilyn , you are an inspiration to us all!</p>
<p>Took me one whole week to get back down (1.5 lbs) to my normal weight after spending 15 hours in the car last weekend. We are in the process of moving. I think carrying all those boxes down the stairs,into the truck,drive to new house, unload the truck, carry boxes up stairs in new house must be a great weight loss workout.</p>
<p>Still here. Dipped into the 130s with last Friday’s weigh in. Final target is 130, so I am happy as a clam!</p>
<p>Best thing–I was talking with a friend of mine who is overweight and thinking about losing weight. I told him that with motivation and the right plan FOR HIM, he can lose the weight. </p>
<p>We discussed that with his current weight, he would need 3000 calories a day to maintain , but could lose 2 pounds a week by cutting back to 2000 calories a day. And 2000 calories a day is quite a bit…</p>
<p>His plan–he plans to cut down his food intake by 1/3–just eye balling it. That plan wouldn’t work for me (bad eyeballs…), but he was so excited to tell me today that he’s already lost 5 pounds!</p>
<p>I hope he continues to have early success…he’s a good friend and I would hate to lose him to health issues.</p>
<p>Woohoo ellemenope!! You go girl!</p>
<p>Men are so lucky! I’d love to eat 2000 calories a day!</p>
<p>I haven’t lost much in the last 6 months, but I haven’t gained anything either. I was hoping the colonoscopy I had last week might have shown up on the scale, but I don’t think it made a bit of difference!</p>
<p>Still stuck in a pattern of up/down by a pound or so, and up a tad from my low of last Thurs. DId go for walks this weekend but my knees are still giving me trouble so have not gone back to more aggressive exercise. Was hoping to get off maybe 5 more pounds before I did venture back to that. Will see what this week brings.</p>
<p>Marilyn, you are really inspirational. Gibson, congrats to your child!! Jym, I know that hovering is so discouraging! Don’t we all wish we could be looking at 2000 calories/day?</p>
<p>Another week has begun–lessgo!</p>
<p>Hi Dummies,
I’m back from four days in DC visiting my daughter. I was sick the whole time and spend a miserable 16 hours in the car with the coming and going. the upside to being sick is that it has really effected my appetite and I actually lost weight while away. This is some kind of mega cold and if it isn’t better tomorrow I’ll have to check in with the doctor. In other news, my back is on the mend with the help of a wonderful PT. I’m looking forward to feeling better and being able to exercise again. I have an appointment with a chiropractor next week as it seems I am out of alignment. (I’m officially a mess).</p>
<p>Another new development. My H was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. He has terrible eating habits and is in denial about it. I’m trying to be patient while he makes up his mind about WHEN he’s going to call the Wellness and Education Center that the doctor ordered. It’s been a week.</p>
<p>First post on this thread. I’m happy to join you all.</p>
<p>Weight loss was prompted by my husband weighing himself at work, comparing it to our home scales and declaring that they are way, way off. So one new digital scale later, there I was, fatter than I had ever been before,even at the end of my third pregnancy! Yikes! Apparently, the drier HADN’T been shrinking my clothes the last couple of years. Plus, menopause has given me the ability to create fat from simply breathing.</p>
<p>So, with a midsummer, major family wedding looming, I need to lose some fat and inches, and a dress size or two, or be faced with having to spend the entire week standing in the back row of the family photos, which is hard because I’m average height everywhere except among my husband’s family, where I am the size of a hobbit. Bad comparison. Hopefully by July I will be more the size of a gymnast. 
</p>
<p>So the new scale arrived in mid January. I did the math, and figured if I walked 4-5 miles a day, almost every day until July, and cut out a couple hundred calories a day, I could lose around a pound a week, which would get me to a terrific place if it all worked out. And even if it didn’t work quite as planned, I should lose SOME weight by July. (I am lousy at cutting out mass amounts of calories, but a few hundred a day is doable, and I’m more likely to stick with walking, which I enjoy, as opposed to running, which is torture, or going to the gym, which involves too much time on either end of the hour I was already committing to the walking.)</p>
<p>(Before I became a menopausal slug I had been much more consistent with exercise, but the last couple of years I really didn’t do much. Can’t really blame anyone for the weight gain except myself.)</p>
<p>I have managed to walk 4-5 miles almost every day since January 25th, and have lost 15 pounds so far. I’m halfway to an ideal weight, but I’m not counting on getting there by July. I may not get there at all. But if i get close I’ll be thrilled. I haven’t hit a big plateau yet, so when that happens I’ll have to step up my game. </p>
<p>Congratulations to all of you who have supported each other through the ups and downs. Weight loss is a bear!</p>
<p>If you were able to maintain your weight with your prior eating habits, then walking 5 miles a day would chew up 500 calories. Add to that the 200 calories a day that you are dropping from your food intake, that equals 700 calories a day that you are losing. That should be good enough to take off a pound a week (if you upped your loss of calories to 1000 a day, you could be losing 2 pounds a week).</p>
<p>I am not a regular poster but wanted to share what worked for me with weight loss/ getting in better shape. I used to run. I loved jogging, absolutely loved it but had to stop and after a few years it was unfortunately obvious that i hadn’t picked up another form of exercise.</p>
<p>i tried Atkins and it did work, but drove me crazy. I love chocolate and don’t like having rules about what i can’t eat. So, what i lost all came back in after a while. That was when i realized that a diet is not going to work unless you stay on it. I figured that i needed a different plan of attack.</p>
<p>I joined the Y and started using the elliptical machine. It burns calories without causing any trouble with my joints. I also started eating portions just a bit smaller. So, it has been maybe 6 months and i might have lost 15 pounds. It seems really slow, i though by now i would have lost more with going to the gym 5-6 days a week for 45 min to an hour.</p>
<p>My body has changed though and that is good. I always heard that muscle ways more than fat. So, even though the scale has been slow to respond, i can tell a difference in how i look and how my clothes fit. I would recommend regular exercise to anyone for toning up and because it just makes you feel better.</p>
<p>Ellemenope, that calculation was exactly what I did. Thanks for articulating it. It has worked well for lsing the first 15 pounds. I’m pretty sure that as I try to lose the last 10-15 I’ll have to add either more intensity, or drop more calories.</p>
<p>Wow, cutting back 1000 cal/day? Thats a lot! </p>
<p>I admit, I haven’t been back to the gym since it aggravated my knees. I was going pretty regularly but paid the price. I’ve been walking with DH several days/week but not the amount that ellemenope is. Thats pretty impressive!</p>
<p>So my weight is back down to where it was last Thursday, but thats still only 1/2 lb lower that from 2 weeks ago. I paid the price of splurging over the holiday weekend. Only way I can seem to lose is to keep calorie intake at 1000-1200 ish calories, and its not easy. So I’ll try to step up the exercise, if my knees can take it.</p>
<p>Oh gosh. I’ve tried so hard not to join this thread but I think I could use some anonymous support. Just quickly–I too decided back in January I needed to get off my lazy butt, not <em>so</em> much for the weight loss, but really for the health benefits. Walked half an hour daily (yeah!). Added a bit of jogging a few weeks ago. (Huge step for me. I can fairly honestly say I haven’t run in 40 years.) Stupidly did too much too quickly and ended up with pretty painful bursitis in one knee. That has <em>almost</em> calmed down (I walked the last two days after 2.5 weeks off, although think I need to take today off–I am now very wary of the pain.)</p>
<p>Anyway–I too have some events coming up (first college graduation–hooray!–, wedding this summer, big party this summer, reunion in September), and just this week I decided maybe I can change my diet if I think of it as a temporary thing. I haven’t gotten out the calculator, and for good or bad I don’t own a scale. My strategy is to cut back on carbs and my nightly glass of wine <sniff!>. I can tell you nobody loves toast and butter, toast and cheese, white pasta and butter and cheese, . . . , more than I do. I’m telling myself one piece toast in the a.m., and then no chips (I am eating Triscuits), bought what I think are maybe lower fat cookies yesterday (graham crackers and ginger snaps).</sniff!></p>
<p>I’m intrigued by those who are walking 4-5 miles a day (I have not measured my route but am guessing it’s more like 2). How long does it take you? When in the day do you do it? I work from home and most days was “stealing” the time at midday. (Occasionally I’ve gone in the mornings or late afternoons.) I think I could figure out how to devote some more time to this (soon! when the dang knees stop hurting!) but could use some tips.</p>
<p>Welcome, myLB. We sound like twins separated at birth!
I love carbs, and don’t do well diet wise if I try to cut them back too much. I find it easier to watchfat grams and calories, and I log them in on the Lance Armstrong “livestrong” website [Healthy</a> Living for Women through Fitness, Food, & Weight Loss | LIVESTRONG.COM](<a href=“http://www.livestrong.com/woman/]Healthy”>Womens Health | livestrong)</p>
<p>It makes one accountable for what they eat, and thats a big part of it. Good luck!</p>
<p>Thanks, jym. I know myself well enough to know I wouldn’t keep up with cutting <em>out</em> some of my favorites, but I do think I can cut back and substitute. That’s my strategy for now, anyway (two days in!), plus I will try to up the walking if I can figure that out. </p>
<p>P.S. Just noticed you are having knee issues too! We really are sisters! Really sucks getting older, doesn’t it!</p>